NewsMusic

April 25, 2009 ET

Fantasies Metric Release Date: no month , Apri Producer(s): Gavin Brown, Jimmy Shaw Genre: ROCK Label/Catalog Number: Metric Music International

Metric's 2005 album, "Live It Out," contained themes of giving up and giving in, but the band's latest effort, "Fantasies," is very much the opposite. In the opener "Help I'm Alive," frontwoman Emily Haines sings, "I get wherever I'm going, I get whatever I need," and that in-control attitude holds true through the rest of the record. With "Fantasies," the first release on the band's own Metric Music International label, the Canadian quartet continues to polish its spacey, new wave-colored sound that's heavy with buzzing synths and echoed vocals. Brisk, dissonant acoustic chords and frenetic shouts accent "Gold Guns Girls," while the adrenaline runs just as strongly in "Front Row." Although Haines asks for just what the title implies on "Gimme Sympathy," her surge in confidence suggests that she doesn't really need it.—LL